If we don't change, one out of every two adults in U.S. will be obese by 2030

If we don't change our eating, nutrition and exercise habits, we'll be facing a very grim scenario. Researchers predicted that one in every two adults in the U.S. will be obese by 2030, according research reviewed by Agence France Press. That's less than 20 years away.

On present trends, 50-51 percent of
American men and 45-52 percent of
American women will by 2030 have a
body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more,
adding as many as 65 million to the
country's population of obese adults,
says one of the papers. Twenty-four
million of these 65 million will be
older than 60.

Claire Wang of Columbia University in New York City and Klim McPherson of Oxford University in Britain extrapolated the numbers based on 2007-2008 data. About 32 percent of U.S. adults were obese then, and the trend hasn't decreased. They published their findings in the British medical journal The Lancet. The main Lancet website has other articles and videos about the global obesity pandemic. You can register and peruse the articles for free. The Wang-McPherson study in its entirety is fascinating and scary.

Comments

It's worth remembering, however, that our own individual habits are not the root cause to this sweeping trend. It's most definitely worth changing our lifestyles and becoming more intentional about our behaviors. But policies, media and systems change are what really need to be overhauled. When the only food choices we see are fast food, high carb/sugar and low nutrient, it's no wonder our health deteriorates as a whole.